INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Brunson insists he is “fine,” but the All-Star point guard certainly didn’t appear to have his usual burst Sunday — and left several shots short — despite not appearing on the Knicks’ official injury report for Game 5.
Brunson had played six quarters through a right foot injury suffered in the first half of Game 2, but he missed 11 of 17 shot attempts and scored a 2024 playoff-low 18 points in 31 minutes in the Pacers’ series-tying annihilation of the Knicks in Game 4.
“It’s a feel thing, and it’s also not overthinking. Sometimes, the ball goes in. Sometimes, it doesn’t,” Brunson said. “There have been plenty of games where I started the game terribly and finished the game shooting 50 percent. There have been games where I started the game 100 percent and finished below 50 percent.
“The game is basketball. Just gotta do things that are — you just don’t know, that are unexpected. Yeah, the ball just didn’t go in.”
It fully appeared to be more than that, however, as Brunson was unable to get the usual separation on his shot, while leaving seven of his 11 missed attempts off the front of the rim.
Brunson, who came in averaging 34.6 points per game in his first nine playoff appearances this spring, shot 16 of 43 from the floor and 2 of 11 from 3-point range in the two road losses, including all five misses from deep in Sunday’ game.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has had Aaron Nesmith primarily guarding Brunson in the past two games, after Andrew Nembhard mostly drew that assignment in the first two games in New York.
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“The easy answer is yes, I’ll try and fix it,” Brunson said. “I mean, they’re definitely physical … and when you’re down 30 [points], nothing’s easy.
“Nothing’s flowers and roses, but yeah, we have to take this L. There’s no excuse; there’s no blaming anything; there’s no excuses of what we have or don’t have or how anyone’s feeling or what. We take our L’s, and we move forward.”
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